What kind of postcards would be prohibited, or considered improper/ illegal in your country, and therefore, would not be handled, nor delivered by your postal service?
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For Australia, any cards that have seeds in them (like for planting/decomposing in a garden), or pressed flowers, or similar untreated organic material would get incinerated by customs. 
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There are no inappropriate or illegal postcards in Finland. Other Finns can correct me if I’m wrong.
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Nazi symbolism is illegal to show here, except for education purposes and in historic context (I think?). I don’t know if anything would happen to the card, though. 
I don’t think that Deutsche Post checks for such things.
Edit: Now that I think about it, I once received a card showing a swastika in historical context (liberation of Guernsey) and nothing happened to the card.
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There is some very heinous history within the USA regarding postcards, and there is one type of postcard that is banned by the USPS.
I won’t talk about the subject here as it is extremely sensitive and triggering. I do not recommend looking it up, and be prepared for some very disturbing imagery if you do.
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Pirated items are illegal in Finland, so I think Disney, Moomin etc card without copyright information goes under this, but I have received Moomin cards that a shop in another country sells and they don’t have the copyright information. I don’t know does anyone care about it when it’s sent as written.
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the LGBTQ is not really accepted in Brunei so I always ask for LGBTQ related postcards to be sent in an envelope
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But they are delivered without any problems, so I wouldn’t really consider them illegal.
Ban in Ukraine on symbols of ruscism (rashism). You should not send postcards with the image of the symbols “v” and “z” to Ukraine. These symbols denote russian aggression against Ukraine. And is a symbol of violence, war, murder.
Also, world maps on which Ukrainian territories, in particular Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, are marked as russian. You should also not send the flag, coat of arms, images of political figures of the aggressor country and their political slogans.
If the post office misses such a postcard, the user from Ukraine will throw it in the trash.
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Do you talk about the lynching postcards?
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Are they banned by your government or you just dont want to receive them?
I know Ukraine members who still list FOTW Russia in their missing list.
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Images of the flag, coat of arms, political figures are not prohibited. There are several examples of Ukrainian Post’s “own stamp” (stamps that are printed to order, but have no value). For example, the image of putin and lavrov.
However, if you do not want to offend a Ukrainian postcrosser, then it is better not to send postcards related in any way to the aggressor country.
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If you’re a South Korean or living in South Korea, You cannot send nor receive any mail to/from North Korea.
It’s banned and you shouldn’t try, but if for some reason you do, you can get in a big trouble and may have to deal with the National Intelligence Service (Korean version of the CIA).
Also, there’s a rule about what shouldn’t be on the outside part of the postal items:
(Auto-translated from Korean)
- Content that harms human dignity, national security, and public order
- Content that promotes anti-social and anti-human behavior such as violence and drugs
- Obscene and decadent content that harms sound sexual morality
- Content that may harm the mental and physical health of teenagers
That would probably include things like naked body showing genitals or women’s nipples… unless it’s undoubtedly an art (like museum postcards).
However, I assume unless there is a big number of such mail, one or two of such mail at a time could just be delivered.
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Nothing, I think. I live in the Netherlands, we are open, and tolerate a lot. Some things might be considered inappropriate, or against everything our nation stands for, but not deliver it? No. The mail carrier just does their job. They may frown upon it, but that’s it.
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I doubt any postcards would manage to reach the realm of the law here in England, as it would need to be extremely NSFW (not safe for work). But there is a law that touches upon the concept.
There are restrictions under the “Obscene Publications Act 1959” which prohibits obscene material from being published or delivered (including by post) where it may be viewed or read. Obscene material is anything which could “deprave and corrupt” a person.
Generally it would have to be a horrendous postcard to overstep that line, and I won’t give any examples. It would need to be “against the moral code of society, and destroy purity and chastity, in an aim to pervert or ruin good quality” (definition given in the court case Penguin Books Ltd [1961] Crim LR 176).
The only exception to something obscene being allowed would be in the defence of “public good”, where the sender could argue that it is justified as being for public good in the interests of science, literature, art or learning.
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Good question. Nothing in USA seems off limits.
If in doubt, feel free to send such things my way! I love cards which push the boundaries of appropriateness!
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I think the only thing banned in the US is mailing seeds or plants. From a social perspective frontal nudity (including women without tops at the beach) would be inappropriate to send
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These are good comments about official reactions to postcards, but many people have their own individual standards and sensitivities. Some are offended by religious imagery or horror or violence or nudity or whatever. I find the individual Postcrossers’ profiles to be helpful in avoiding offence, both to them and their postal service - which is also made up of individuals with their own sensitivities.
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I had a friend that I jokingly sent a postcard to of a woman in a swimsuit, and her postman put it in a brown paper bag when giving it to her, LOL. Not banned, but I guess he was uncomfortable with it!
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Pirated items FOR GIFT are not illegal in Finland. It will be illegal if you try to get money of them.
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